The upcoming road trip is of major concern for the Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks are in the next stage of crisis within a season full of crises. The franchise has not had a clear run with injury to their starting group for the entire season. It has defined how the 10th-place Hawks season is going to end up. Even if they do qualify for the play-in tournament, it is highly unlikely that they will make the playoffs, which would be a benefit moving forward

However, to get to the end of the season, the Hawks still have to negotiate their longest road trip of the season. It is the longest in both time (five games) and distance traveled. The Hawks start by traveling to Oregon to take on the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Hawks play the Utah Jazz and will spend a weekend in Los Angeles to take on both the Lakers and the Clippers in a back-to-back before finishing the road trip in Phoenix. The Hawks could lose all of these games and miss the play-in. While that is probably a good thing this season, the impact this trip could have on the Hawks is far greater.

The Atlanta Hawks need to protect their players.

The Hawks have so many issues when it comes to injury with things being made worse by the injury to Saddiq Bey. The forward tore his ACL in the blowout loss to the New Orleans Pelicans and will miss the rest of the season.

This is going to potentially put a strain on the rest of the playing group over the coming month of basketball. The current injury list is impressive, Trae Young is out for much of the rest of the season, and Onyeka Okongwu is out, apparently indefinitely. Jalen Johnson is out for a few games with a sprained ankle, and Kobe Bufkin is out for another week or so.

Dejounte Murray was probable for the Pelicans game but was still able to play. However, with Bey ruled out, the Hawks are down three starters and a key reserve. Given the Hawks' lack of bench depth, this is going to put tremendous strain on Murray, Clint Capela, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and De'Andre Hunter, who is only just off a minutes restriction

Almost every team in the Association is banged up to some degree. But the Hawks are one of the worst. The Hawks still have four starting caliber players, but they have had to use Vit Krejci in the starting lineup for the past two games. The Hawks are relying on 37-year-old Wesley Matthews, as well as deep rotation players Garrison Mathews, Bruno Fernando, and Trent Forrest.

However, due to the competitive nature of NBA players, these guys are only getting rotation minutes and the starters are taking the lion's share. The more court time a player has, the greater the risk of injury. The Hawks won't have Bey. And they can only hope they get some of their players back.